Jules and Jim
Short description
Jules and Jim is a French romantic drama set in the years before and after the First World War. Two friends living in Paris, the Austrian Jules and the Frenchman Jim, both fall in love with the same woman, Catherine. The three become inseparable, but the bond between them is tested by the shifting nature of desire, by marriage, and by the separation the war brings. François Truffaut directed and produced the film, which was released in 1962. It is the fourth of the fourteen films he directed, following Shoot the Piano Player and preceding The Soft Skin.
The film is based on Henri-Pierre Roché's semi-autobiographical novel. Jeanne Moreau plays Catherine, alongside Oskar Werner as Jules and Henri Serre as Jim, with supporting roles for Marie Dubois, Sabine Haudepin and Vanna Urbino. Running just over an hour and three quarters, it is a relatively restrained production by the standards of the period, and it reached a wide international audience over the decades that followed.
Its reputation rests on a broad and durable following. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.6 from around 47,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.5 from roughly 1,000 votes. A film critics' rating of 9.5 out of 10, drawn from 51 reviews, places it noticeably higher than either audience score, suggesting that professional appraisal of the film has remained stronger than its general viewer reception.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché – “Jules and Jim” (1953).
- Filming took place quite quickly – from April 10th to June 28th, 1961 in Paris, on the French Riviera and in Alsace.
- Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017) had to jump into the river because the stunt double who was supposed to participate in filming showed up on set drunk. After filming, the actress fell ill with a cold and stayed in bed for two days.
- Cinematographer Raoul Coutard (1924-2016) used lightweight filming equipment that had never been used before, and even mounted some cameras on bicycles.
- François Truffaut (1932-1984) was so nervous on the night of the premiere that he decided to watch one of the Marx Brothers’ films instead of his own.
- When the money allocated for the film’s production ran out, Jeanne Moreau invested her own funds.
- François Truffaut disliked shooting love scenes, which is why the love scenes involving Jim and Jules were filmed in semi-darkness.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
